How does the Yellowdig point system work?

Different actions and responses to your posted content in Yellowdig can earn you points if points are activated for your class or organization. The board owner (typically an instructor) or the organizational administrator can configure rules for how you can earn points. Those rules can be seen at any time by clicking on "How Points Work" below the main points display.

The "How Points Work" link will display the Point rules decided upon and set by your instructor, as shown below. It will also give you an overview of your current participation grade out of the course maximum.

"My Points Log" will display a detailed list of all Pins and Comments for which you were awarded points. It also shows your overall participation score, the weekly point maximum, and the points you still need to achieve the weekly maximum:

Your LMS Gradebook and How Points in Yellowdig are Converted to Scores in Your LMS Gradebook

If your instructor has Yellowdig synced with your course gradebook in your LMS, it is important to know that the information that Yellowdig sends to your LMS is the proportion/percentage of points you have earned toward the total number of points needed for the entire course. However, the proportion/percentage sent is NOT out of the points possible for the course to that point in time. For example, in a 10 week course with the point goal set at 100 Yellowdig points and a weekly maximum of 10 Yellowdig points each week, if you were to get the 10 available points in the first week your LMS gradebook would only show that you have gotten 10% of the points assigned to your Yellowdig participation in your LMS even though you have actually gotten 100% of the points available to that point in time. If you were to then get the weekly maximum each week, by the third week your LMS gradebook would show that you have 30% of the total. How your instructor has the gradebook set up will influence what you actually see in the LMS gradebook, but it is typically the case that when you check your points in your LMS gradebook, your progress toward your participation goal may appear significantly worse than it actually is after you take into account how many weeks into a course you are.

Please also note that the grade sync for Yellowdig is set to run on a schedule for each board. Therefore, points earned in Yellowdig will not immediately be displayed in your LMS gradebook; the points indicated inside the Yellowdig platform will be the most up-to-date and accurate record of your progress toward your participation goal. Depending on the exact timing of your participation, your institution's settings, timezone, etc. it may take as long as 6-12 hours for a grade earned in Yellowdig to appear in the gradebook. As long as the gradebook link was previously established (i.e., after the first week you can see that you have earned some points in your LMS gradebook) and the points appear as expected in the LMS grade section of Yellowdig, please allow some time for your gradebook to update before notifying your instructor or Yellowdig of a problem.

Unfortunately, Yellowdig does not have control over the LMS systems we integrate with or how instructors choose to use them, so there are times that updates or service outages for the LMS, or the setup that the instructor has chosen, will create some unexpected or unusual behavior that may require some attention from your instructor or Yellowdig. Please do know that if there are any issues with the link between Yellowdig and the LMS, any points earned and displayed within Yellowdig's platform are being logged and will be passed to the LMS whenever the link to your LMS is fully established or can be re-established. Therefore, please try not panic if your LMS gradebook does not seem quite right! We also recommend, unless told so by your instructor, that you do NOT stop participating in Yellowdig if you do not see your LMS gradebook working. Rather we would suggest that you continue posting any assigned content. If you are concerned about your LMS grade passback, we would also suggest making a Pin on Yellowdig about it, to see if other students are experiencing the same issue or if your professor is aware of the issue. The bottom line is that as long as you see that you are earning the expected points in the Yellowdig platform, the LMS grade should automatically be updated in the future or your instructor and Yellowdig should be able to fix those issues based on the data being saved directly through the Yellowdig.

Note: If you are a Canvas user and you believe that your grade should be getting sent for a class but it never has, please check that you have launched Yellowdig at least once from an assignment link that your instructor will need to have setup. Every individual learner must launch from an assignment to establish their individual grade passback. If you cannot find the assignment link, ask your fellow students in Yellowdig whether they were able to find it. If they cannot, the instructor may need to set up an assignment or may have other instructions. Please just remember that it is possible to log in to a board for a class before an instructor may be entirely done setting it up, so wait until you receive some instructions from your professor about your Yellowdig participation or at least after your first classes to worry about grade passback. As noted above, any points earned in Yellowdig and displayed there will be retained unless your instructor resets the points for everyone on the board.